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10->'''Adam:''' Let's go; there's a nuke. Just telling you again.\
11'''Herman:''' That's what they do to everything; it didn't work in ''Film/IndependenceDay''.
12-->-- ''Film/LazerTeam''
13
14When faced with a MonsterOfTheWeek, military commanders show an unhealthy urge to move right up to the (current) [[NuclearOption Final Option]] ([[FantasticNuke or the local equivalent]]) when the monster [[ImmuneToBullets can't be killed with bullets]]. They never stop to consider using something else in their arsenal that's a bit more powerful than a rifle, but won't cause as much collateral damage as a tactical-yield nuclear bomb. It's all or nothing. If [[FiveRoundsRapid hand-held guns didn't do the trick]], forget artillery, [[TanksForNothing tanks]], [[BigBulkyBomb bunker-busters]], fuel-air explosives, chemical or biological agents, just ''get the nukes''.
15
16The heroes will probably object to this, only to be told that there's no time to "study the monster", it has to be taken out now ([[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill along with every other living thing inside a radius of five kilometers]]) before it gets bigger and destroys more things!
17
18From there, it becomes a race to see if the good-guy scientists can find the monster's AchillesHeel or get the ForgottenSuperweapon back online before the Army gets its approval to start lobbing warheads. Of course, if the Army wins the race, it's likely that the nukes will either do nothing, or make things much, much worse, making the heroes the last hope.
19
20As such, note that Nuke Em is only when using nukes is a bad idea, either because [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill it's clearly overkill]] or [[NiceJobBreakingItHero it's likely to backfire]]. If it's a well-considered and reasonable choice given [[GodzillaThreshold the situation]], then it's the NuclearOption. Sometimes exactly which trope the planned nuking falls under may be debated InUniverse.
21
22{{Manga}} and {{anime}} is mostly immune to this, due to the NuclearWeaponsTaboo. In fact, [[InvertedTrope expect the opposite to be true]]: that even if it's proven that [[NuclearOption nothing but a nuke would work]], there will be extreme resistance to the idea. DarkerAndEdgier such stories may even play this straight, of those responsible for finally pressing the button considering everything up to [[{{Seppuku}} ritual suicide]] as a [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone result of guilt]].
23
24Very common in ScienceIsBad stories and usually involves a GeneralRipper (in fact, the {{Trope Namer|s}} for GeneralRipper made this his signature). A popular way of ruining someone's day with DeathFromAbove. Related to the IdiotBall, depending on the size of the strike.
25
26Related to DeusExNukina if the nuking is being used in a situation where it should be obvious that it realistically wouldn't have any effect, fallout and massive collateral damage aside. For the biological weapon equivalent, see BiologicalWeaponsSolveEverything.
27
28If you happen to be playing a video game, and you're directly responsible for launching it, it's a YouNukeEm situation.
29
30See also: FiveRoundsRapid, ImmuneToBullets, ArmiesAreEvil, and RadiationImmuneMutants. Not related to the [[VideoGame/DukeNukem incredibly egotistic alien-slaughterer of the same name]].
31
32----
33!!Examples:
34
35[[foldercontrol]]
36
37[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38* In ''Manga/SevenSeeds'', the Fuji Ship during the Minor Heat arc is basically an armoury stacked to the roof with guns, rifles, revolvers, anything that shoots bullets. Like the other Fuji shelters, it was built to sustain over time and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the meteor impact]], housing a big number of people to keep them safe. The ship did have another purpose, though, which is this trope! [[spoiler:If the people on the ship thought that things were absolutely hopeless and there was no chance of recovery, they were to activate the rockets on the ship. These rockets, which included one nuclear warhead, were to be shot out and rain all over Japan, [[LeaveNoSurvivors killing everyone]]. This sequence would also start the self-destruct sequence of the ship, sealing all exits and exploding after the rockets were launched with a 24-hour span of time after the activation of this sequence.]] Needless to say, the plot of the Minor Heat arc is to prevent this from happening.
39* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has [[spoiler:''Soi Fon'' [[{{Ninja}} of all people]]]] pulling this as Bankai. Naturally, [[spoiler:she doesn't like its nature]]. There's also the [[spoiler:Kidou Cannon]] from the first movie.
40* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', [[spoiler:Britannia decides to go with nuking things as soon as they get them. They decide to give the first one to Suzaku, who really doesn't want to do it, but he ends up doing it anyway. Schneizel takes this to the logical conclusion of nuking every major city in the world to achieve world peace]].
41* In the ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' movie ''[[Recap/DigimonAdventureMovieOurWarGame Our War Game!]]'', the film's BigBad Diablomon/Diaboromon ''hacks into the Pentagon and fires a nuclear-equipped LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM at Tokyo''. [[spoiler:The only reason why the protagonists aren't nuked into oblivion is that Omnimon manages to take out the BigBad with about a second left until the nuke would have been set off.]]
42* ''Manga/DogSoldier'': [[AfricanTerrorists Zardoz]] is willing to nuke Tokyo, while UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi plans to use a massively powerful nuke on the West.
43* Happens in ''Manga/GetterRobo Go'', after [[spoiler:Shin Getter Robo goes berserk]] they various governments make several attempts to try and stop it, eventually resorting to a nuclear strike. [[spoiler:The machine ends up ''grabbing the missile and [[CombiningMecha combining with it]]''.]]
44* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
45** Nukes were the first weapons deployed in the One Year War of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', by both Zeon and the Earth Federation. The Antarctic Treaty banning nukes (and biological/chemical weapons too) came about because before either side knew it, nearly half the human population had been wiped out in the space of a few weeks.
46** Nukes show up again in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' as Londo Bell is forced to take up a bunch of nuclear missiles to stop Axis from falling. However, Neo Zeon steals most of them to shove into Axis, forcing Londo Bell to use what's left.
47** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'', the Earth Federation develops the Gundam [=GP02A=] "Physalis", designed for the express purpose of tactical strikes; it's armed with a bazooka that launches nuclear warheads and a massive shield packed with radiators to help it weather the shockwaves and heat generated by the nuke. Zeon remnants steal the Physalis and use it to attack the Federation's naval review as part of their master plan: a ColonyDrop on North America.
48** Nukes pop up again in full force in ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam'', when the Jupiter Empire invades the Earth Sphere. [[BigBad Crux Dogatie]] dismisses claims of violating the Antarctic Treaty by saying that [[LoopholeAbuse Jupiter never signed it]]. Dogatie is also using nukes because he's explicitly trying to inflict ''as much environmental damage as possible'' to Earth; he wanted the planet to be a dead rock. The Crossbone Vanguard uses their own tactical nuclear weapons against the Jovian forces, due mostly to the GodzillaThreshold having been crossed in their opinion.
49** ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' expressly defies the NuclearWeaponsTaboo, with Militia forces uncovering a stockpile of warheads left over from the Dark History. The Moonrace tries to warn them about how dangerous the warheads are, but the Militia doesn't heed the warning until ''after'' they accidentally detonated one. Afterwards, Loran carries the remaining nukes in the Turn A's chest silos for several episodes, eventually using them to destroy a runaway space station [[ColonyDrop before it can fall on Earth]].
50** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', nuking ZAFT is Blue Cosmos leaders Muruta Azrael and Lord Djibril's ''first'' response. ZAFT creates devices like the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Neutron Jammer and Neutron Stampeder]] to make sure that it can't happen again. The Neutron Jammer inhibits nuclear reactions from taking place, and is ZAFT's primary defense during ''SEED''. Since the Blue Cosmos gets its hands on Neutron Jammer Canceller technology late in the war[[note]]Technology ZAFT had invented, because Neutron Jammers don't have an "off" switch and their own DoomsdayDevice (GENESIS, designed to [[ApocalypseHow/Class5 wipe out all life on Earth]]) needed nuclear fission to function.[[/note]], nukes become a viable weapon again. In the aftermath of the war, ZAFT know that mere illegality won't keep N-Jammer Cancellers from being used again someday. So they develop a much nastier defense in the form of the Neutron Stampeder, which ''forces'' any nuclear warhead within its area of effect to detonate. Thus, when Blue Cosmos attempts a preemptive nuclear strike early in ''SEED Destiny'', the Stampeder is activated, and the nuclear-armed fleet is forced to nuke itself.
51* In ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'', because of the "Thirteen Day War" that occurred centuries before the canon timeline, which nearly exterminated the human race, nuclear weapons on planets were considered a taboo. [[spoiler:Still doesn't mean none are willing nuke their ''own'' planets just because.]]
52* The ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' series are an exception to the NuclearWeaponsTaboo, although its reaction weaponry isn't nuclear ''per se'' -- it's an ''annihilation'' weapon, that is, an ''antimatter'' charge (and is itself eventually ''surpassed'' in power by dimension/fold weapons, which warp ''spacetime itself''):
53** ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'': The invading Zentraedi are stunned that humanity has nuclear weapons because "Reaction Weapons" are LostTechnology to them. However, mankind doesn't actually use them until the final battle against the 117th Main Fleet, which, considering said fleet had just [[spoiler:annihilated most of the Earth's surface through a massive orbital bombardment]], probably qualifies as having crossed the GodzillaThreshold. It's notably the only time in the franchise the use of nukes is done ''without'' any kind of debate as to whether it's appropriate.
54** ''Anime/MacrossZero'': The propelling force of the final episode's bizarre ending is that, just after the hero has used ThePowerOfLove to subdue the Bird Human controlled by his girlfriend, [[InterruptedCooldownHug the navy launches nukes and makes everything worse]]. Though, admittedly, every other ship with smaller weapons had been wiped out in the few previous minutes and they had no idea the Bird Human was not a threat anymore (the Destroid Monster with the nukes came out ''six seconds'' after the Bird Human was calmed down and, given the known situation, fired before anyone could realize what had happened).
55** ''Anime/Macross7'': {{Lampshade h|anging}}ung in that, for all that it's implied that nuclear weapons are a weapon of last resort (Earth Command authorizing their use is seen as a big thing), ''every ship in the fleet'' seems to have unlimited stores of them (probably because the Protodeviln ship commanding their enemies is ''just that tough''). At one point, Basara even exclaims "Reaction weapons! Reaction Weapons! Any time something goes wrong, is that the only solution you have?!"
56** ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' shows that even chronically [[RedShirtArmy redshirted]] NUNS (New United Nations Spacey) pilots could be pretty effective when armed with the stuff. Of course, arming everyone with such weapons means that the NUNS forces on board the Frontier are reaching the end of their rope, as [[AdaptiveAbility the Vajra have managed to adapt to everything else]] (and, eventually, adapt to reaction warheads too...).
57** The ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' adaptation of ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' also features judicious use of nuclear weapons and their 'reaction' upgrades, here called 'reflex weapons'.
58* An amusing case in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. The army do try almost everything in their arsenal before resorting to [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo N2 mines]], and when they fail decide that [[HumongousMecha giant human-shaped robots]] are the best bet.
59** "Believing a giant human shaped robot is the best bet" only occurs after the first two episodes at least: based on the conversation with [[SmugSnake Gendo Ikari]] after expending their [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo N2 mines]], their thought process was more towards "we've used all of our strongest options. Let's see your inferior robot do better". As Nerv shows them, yes, they can do better... and since, the army asks for Evangelion intervention with haste every other time an Angel appears. "Eva 'em"?
60** Another reason why the N2 mines aren't used is because they'd incapacitate the Angel... [[DestructiveSavior and drastically alter the ground around it]] (the characters remark on redrawing the map more than once). Contrast the Evas, who at most will level a part of the (already submerged) city.
61[[/folder]]
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63[[folder:Comic Books]]
64* In the ''ComicBook/ArmorWars'' storyline in ''ComicBook/IronMan'', CorruptCorporateExecutive Edwin Cord constructs the [[PoweredArmor Firepower suit]] for a military contract. Among its [[MoreDakka many armaments]] is a low-yield nuclear missile named the Terminax, which is ultimately used to destroy the Silver Centurion armor. Cord later blackmails the military into keeping Firepower for himself by threatening to tell the press that this nuclear-armed battlesuit was intended for [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill riot control]]. The "new" Iron Man is able to [[CurbStompBattle tear Firepower apart]], though, and shut down another Terminax before it can destroy the Stark Enterprises campus.
65* ''ComicBook/MarvelBoy'' depicts its titular superhero (despite his prodigious combat-oriented abilities) as wiping out a group of enemy agents by simply flying over their base and dropping a nuclear weapon on them.
66* In ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'', General Zod's band carry out a FalseFlagOperation by destroying all of Earth's communications and espionage satellites. Rather than verifying if they are indeed under attack when their satellites are shut down, both Americans and Russians opt for launching their warheads immediately.
67* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': When the Saint of Killers obviously isn't falling to the forces of Starr's soldiers, Starr declares the battle lost and drops a nuke, wiping out the rest of his troops. Then the Saint emerges from the blast site. His only words? [[ImplacableMan "Not enough gun."]]
68* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' villain Cheshire destroys {{Qurac}} with a nuclear explosive to prove that she isn't bluffing about having nukes or being willing to use them. It gets [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun brought up from time to time]], but [[ThrowAwayCountry nobody really cares about the country itself being gone]] -- and this was the reason ''why'' she chose Qurac, because she knew if most people tried to call her a monster because of it, they would be reminded that she destroyed a country considered to be the terrorist capital of the world, and that they secretly may have been glad she did it.
69* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The Green Geni are not as negativity effected by nuclear radiation as humans, and are a group of xenophobic homicidal interstellar criminals who like to find worlds bearing life and nuke them from orbit as entertainment.
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder:Fan Works]]
73* ''Fanfic/AdoptionNightmare'': What do you think when an annoying AI VideoGame/{{Civilization}} keeps on bugging you? Brina suggests this trope after taking the cities that are in anarchy.
74* In ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'', Natasha observes that this has been the World Security Council's recommended response to the last four major disasters (Loki's invasion, Zod's attempted terraforming, the Dark Elves' assault and the attack of Ao Shun the dragon), and each time, it's been more practical to let the Avengers handle things.
75* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5378267/1/bConquest_b_of_the_bEmperor_b_The_World_of_Naruto Conquest of the Emperor: The World of Naruto]]'', the Grand Empire somewhat does this to Madara and his Zetsus, but it is implied that they first had someone check to see what the impact of the fallout would be. Their [[ThePlan plan]] for the effects of the fallout makes it this trope.
76* In the ''Franchise/{{Tron}}'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/9436712/chapters/21352286 The Contingency]]'', Alan Bradley solves the ''entire'' situation by walking right up to Clu, [[spoiler:delivering a very firmly worded KirkSummation, and then pointing out that if he and Flynn do not get off the Grid alive, Lora is standing by, prepared to reformat the entire hard drive, wiping out every Program and Iso on it. Clu, realizing that Tron's User is even ''less'' inclined to bluff than Tron was, [[OhCrap lets them all go]]]].
77* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': [[spoiler:Jinnai]]'s reaction to the taking of his fleet is trying to turn Buenos Aires and a chunk of Argentina into a smoking crater by launching dozens of nukes.
78* In the ''Fanfic/DevaSeries'', [[spoiler:the Americans use a pair of [=SLBMs=] to obliterate a massive swarm of [[ImplacableMan Seeds]] that were heading for either New York or London. Even though nothing else significant was harmed -- middle of the ocean, and all -- Hayate was not happy, since she feels that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch now for someone to think to launch a barrage of nukes at Al Hanthis... which would obliterate Cairo in the process. Also, the Al Hantheans are utterly horrified once they learn exactly how nuclear weapons work. It is probably worth noting that there is InUniverse debate as to whether this was Nuke Em or NuclearOption; it did work, and [[WarriorPrince Yussef]] and [[SergeantRock Maunders]] don't consider it an overreaction. Yussef notes that point defences now make anything short of a nuclear MacrossMissileMassacre worthless against Al Hanthis and would rather not use another if possible, but is mentally prepared to do so [[GodzillaThreshold if all the chips are down]], unlike Hayate who absolutely refuses to consider it]].
79* Discord's plan to destroy humanity in ''Fanfic/DiariesOfAMadman'' involves this. It works, but not quite well enough for his goals...
80* ''Fanfic/AnEndToAllThings'': ''Someone'' nukes the town in the opening act, according to Okazaki's memories. Or will nuke the town, the story has a measure of AnachronicOrder with regards to that event.
81* ''Fanfic/{{Eugenesis}}'' notes that a lot of Cybertron's surface has been nuked over the course of the war. Since its inhabitants are robots, it's not as dangerous for them as it would be for most lifeforms, but most of the nuked cities are long abandoned anyway.
82* ''Manga/Evangelion303'': At least [[ObstructiveBureaucrat one of the members]] of the [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Senate Subcommittee]] overseeing the Black Project Evangelion maintains that the best way to deal with [[AncientConspiracy Seele]] was nuking the whole country where they were hiding in lieu of building Evangelions to launch a pre-emptive targeted raid.
83* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': [[spoiler:Need to get rid of the [[HiveQueen queen]] of a [[UtopiaJustifiestheMeans brutally pragmatic]] HiveMind ''and'' the Zebra [[TomeofEldritchLore Necronomicon]] at the same time? Blow both of them to atoms with the same [[FantasticNuke balefire bomb]]! It actually does work.]]
84* ''Fanfic/FrozenHeartsRedWitch'': Reaching the peak of his VillainousBreakdown, Barton eventually decides to fire a nuclear missile right onto Candy Kingdom out of spite. Fortunately, Simon and Betty managed to stop the nuke before that can happen.
85* ''Fanfic/HailToTheKingThuktunFlishithy'': Shamshel is hit with an N2 mine instead of Sachiel in this story. Franchise/{{Godzilla}} is also hit with one when he goes on his literal {{Roaring Rampage of Rescue}}. [[NoSell It doesn't even slow his stride]].
86* In [[http://www.fanfiction.net/~mrevil Mr. Evil's]] ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' fanfiction ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4267279/1/Hero_High_Sphinx_Academy Hero High: Sphinx Academy]]'', the Head of the Tempus Family questions why they can't just Nuke the city school they know the BigBad to be in. Her assistants reveal that from the structural design he already re-enforced the school to protected it against such an attack.
87* The climax of Book Three of ''Fanfic/TheLastSon'' ironically begins and ends because of this trope. After General Zod provokes the North Korean diplomat during a United Nations meeting, North Korea launches a salvo of nukes at [[KillSat Battle Station Sentrius]] in paranoia. Naturally, after Sentrius neutralizes them and pays them in kind, Zod uses this as an excuse to declare Earth as a whole hostile and take over. Superman and his allies are forced to lure Zod into a trap to depower him, but at the same time [[GeneralRipper General Lassider]] of S.H.I.E.L.D (also a member of Cadmus working to undermine the heroes) launches a Kryptonite-loaded nuke to kill Zod, Superman, and everyone else still around regarding them as "acceptable losses". They're forced to open a PhantomZone singularity to absorb the blast and avoid major damage.
88* Shown in ''Fanfic/LeviathanThuktunFlishithy'', the remake of ''Fanfic/HailToTheKingThuktunFlishithy'' above. Nuclear weapons were used against Godzilla in the past, and Israfel is hit with an N2 mine.
89* ''WebAnimation/TheMarionetteTriesToListenToHisMusicbox'': The Marionette's response to Balloon Boy laughing to the tune of the music box is to throw a nuclear bomb at him, resulting in an EverythingExplodesEnding.
90* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4236712/1/Project_Tatterdemalion Project Tatterdemalion]]'', the top authorities involved initially wanted to nuke the facility after the Hollows began rampaging. Bad idea. As Juushirou explains, heat and radiation kill a lot of things, but only if they're contained long enough. If the Hollow virus was sporific, all nuking the facility would've done is pop open the box the Hollows were kept in and spread still-infectious Hollow bits up into the jetstream, dooming the world... and infecting the spaceports. And as Juushirou said, all they knew for certain was 'Alien,' and 'Dangerous,' so it could've indeed been sporific, or close enough for an apocalypse.
91* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'': The {{Space Marine}}s have [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill no problem hurling micratomic grenades about]] when they're supposed to be on a rescue mission, but B'Elanna Torres has to talk them out of detonating an A-rocket too near ''Voyager'', as the radiation would be trapped by the electromagnetic field the ship uses to ward off cosmic radiation.
92* In ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40k'', when Gendo asks Kaji how many UN warheads, dirty (nuclear) bombs or otherwise, are pointed at Tokyo-3 in case Misato and Risuko's plan against Iruel fails, Kaji's reply...namely, ''[[MoreDakka all of them]]'', meets with his satisfaction.
93* Defied in ''Fanfic/TarkinsFist''. The Empire annihilates the Earth's nuclear arsenal in a preemptive strike designed to prevent the use of tactical or strategic nuclear weapons. The resulting Empire-Earth War is largely conventional.
94* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': Nukes are used all over the place to finish an enemy [[spoiler:or Nerv itself.]]
95* In the prologue of ''Fanfic/AYoungGirlsDelinquencyRecord'', Tanya uses the dangerously unstable Elenium Type 95 as a nuclear hand grenade and levels the city of Brest with it.
96* ''Fanfic/Zero2ARevision'': When [[OriginalCharacter Shaun]] attempts to head to Little Edo to gather up reinforcements in hopes of gathering a resistance against the Digimon Emperor, the entire population of Little Edo ends up getting brainwashed along with a "surprise" should he manage to survive for two hours: a ''freakin'' nuclear warhead that the Emperor chucks towards Little Edo to prevent TheAce from interfering with his plans. Had Davis and (Agumon) not arrived in time, Shaun would have been outright obliterated by it.
97[[/folder]]
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99[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
100* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', when the army's biggest guns do not faze the titular Giant, Agent Mansley reminds General Rogard that they have something else: the Bomb. The general is frightened by the suggestion, but orders an offshore submarine to arm a missile. In this case, the FourStarBadass Rogard is more reasonable than the hotheaded civilian Mansley: Rogard is the one who commands the army to stand down and stop the attack. Mansley snatches the radio and shrieks the order to launch the missile anyway, a move that is unnecessary and stupid.
101** It is not necessary because Hogarth has pacified the Giant and stopped its rampage. It is not a threat.
102** It is stupid because the missile is aimed at the spot they are standing: a town full of innocent people.
103** Mansley, who exemplifies the idiotic side of TheFifties UsefulNotes/ColdWar paranoia, does not seem to appreciate how destructive the Bomb is: he suggests they can survive if they Film/DuckAndCover. When Rogard tells him he is TooDumbToLive, he looks ready to cry.
104--->'''Rogard:''' That missile is targeted to the Giant's ''current position!'' ''[furious]'' Where's the Giant, Mansley?!\
105'''Mansley:''' Wh-- ''[looks over his shoulder at the Giant standing nearby]'' Oh. ''[[[OhCrap winces]]]'' We... We can duck and cover! There's a fallout shelter right there--\
106'''Rogard:''' There's no way to survive this, [[LethallyStupid you idiot]]!\
107'''Mansley:''' [[OhCrap You mean...we're all going to-]] \
108'''Rogard:''' [[FaceDeathWithDignity To DIE, Mansley. For our country.]] \
109'''[[DirtyCoward Mansley]]:''' [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw our country! I wanna live!]] ''[jumps into a Jeep and tries to drive off before crashing into the Giant's metal hand]''
110** In a final irony, [[spoiler:the warhead could not kill the Giant anyway]].
111* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'', the robot probe is found to be indestructible, and the President wants to simply launch all the nuclear missiles on him when General Monger stops him.
112[[/folder]]
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114[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
115* ''Film/TheAbyss'': While suffering from paranoia, Coffey decides to destroy the aliens by sending down an armed nuclear warhead.
116* ''Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem'' is a weird case. [[spoiler:The "Predalien" has already managed to overrun the entire town with its more classically styled offspring. The military solution, after the recon unit sent in is quickly butchered? Nuke the town and tell those still alive to congregate in the center of the town for an airlift, so as to keep the aliens from spreading out.]] While this decision is completely justified [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure given the circumstances]], it's strange that they settle for that option so fast, given how little information they have on the threat.
117* ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'': The US government ultimately decides to nuke a walled-off [[ZombieApocalypse zombie-infested]] Las Vegas. What makes it cross into "Nuke 'em" territory is how cartoonishly gung-ho the US President seems to be, not least for wanting it to happen on July 4th for extremely dubious "patriotic fireworks" reasons.
118* In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the World Security Council]] decides that the Avengers are going to lose the final battle and decide to just nuke Manhattan Island (along with all its inhabitants) to disrupt the wormhole through which the Chitauri army is invading. [[spoiler:Tony winds up nearly sacrificing himself to guide the nuke into space and chuck it at the alien ship instead. And their decision [[RewatchBonus makes more sense]] after the reveal in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' that the Council is controlled by Hydra.]] Needless to say, neither Nick Fury nor any of the Avengers were particularly impressed by their stellar display of competence.
119-->'''Fury:''' I realize that the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
120* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', when air-to-air missiles fail to harm Doomsday, the military immediately suggests that they nuke it once Supes has moved the fight into the upper atmosphere. The President agrees, over the objections of the [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure secretary of defense]]. Well, that escalated quickly. [[spoiler:It goes about as well as you'd expect.]]
121* Extended in ''Film/Evolution2001'', but it uses napalm. An officer does suggest using nukes, only for the governor to firmly state that no one is going to drop an H-bomb on his state, so the army gets [[KillItWithFire napalm to destroy a lifeform]], just after the protagonist discovers that a smaller sample expands by many times after being touched by fire. They tell the army, [[TooDumbToLive they attack anyway]], and the monster becomes about a million times bigger. [[spoiler:Then the scientists [[LethalJokeWeapon kill it with shampoo]].]]
122* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
123** In ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' the military actually seriously considers nuking Kong. Luckily, the heroes manage to find an alternative. This proposal only appears in the English version, though.
124** In ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'', not only does nuking him not work, it makes him stronger. Nukes against Godzilla. Smart thinking, guys. That's like [[ShootingSuperman using a flamethrower against the Human Torch]].
125** Variation in ''Film/GodzillaVsKingGhidorah'', present-day Japan decides to nuke the Godzillasaurus that would've become Godzilla (who is now at the bottom of the Bering Sea) so that he can fight King Ghidorah. Subverted in that, he's already been nuked/mutated...in a sense (by absorbing the radiation from all the sunken nuclear subs already present in the area) and nuking him... again... only makes him bigger and far more powerful than before.
126** It should be noted that Godzilla ''can'' die from too much radiation (as seen in the film ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah''). The only problem is that doing so causes him to go into a nuclear meltdown which would result in destroying all life on earth and reducing the earth to a wasteland. [[spoiler:Unless you have an adolescent Godzilla (i.e., Junior) around to absorb the radiation and reach his adult form.]]
127** ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' has the US Army prepare to nuke Godzilla if the Japanese military fails to stop him. In the end, the heroes manage to freeze Godzilla over and end his rampage, but the US Army is closely watching him, prepared to push the big red button and let the nukes fly at the slightest indication that he is awakening.
128** In ''Film/Godzilla2014'', Serizawa explains that at least some Pacific nuclear tests were not tests, but attempts to nuke the titular monster, which obviously failed at best or made him even stronger at worst. [[spoiler:In the present day, Admiral Stenz eventually (''keyword'') intends to try and eliminate all three of the rampaging monsters with nuclear warheads, despite frantic cautioning from the scientists that nukes are more likely to make the situation ''even worse'' since they failed to kill just one monster before and since the monsters grow stronger by feeding on radiation; but Stenz' plan ends up backfiring when the female MUTO steals two warheads from a train, and the male MUTO steals the third one ''after it has been armed'', and takes it to the centre of San Francisco.]]
129* In ''Film/IronSky'', the American space battleship U.S.S. ''George W. Bush'', loaded to the brim with nukes, takes to the Moon under the command of one Vivian Wagner, but not to battle [[ThoseWackyNazis the Moon Nazis]] as such. No, she wants to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nuke]] the new Nazi Führer Klaus Adler [[WomanScorned for only almost becoming her lover]]. It's just mere coincidence that Adler launches his invasion on Earth right then.
130* In ''Film/QuantumApocalypse'', the Russian government nukes the Poles in order to knock Earth off its orbit in the hopes of getting it away from the strangelet threatening to destroy it. Not only does the plan not work, the explosions cause tsunamis that destroy UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.
131* ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'': They nuke the zombies (and all the main characters in the process), but, of course, [[spoiler:that just causes the zombification juice to re-enter the atmosphere and create ''more'' zombies]]. Good going, dumbasses.
132* In ''Film/RoboCop1987'', this trope is the premise of an in-universe children's board game. 'Get them before they get you... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSSVt7Mfkk Nukem]]!' More seriously, the white government of the South African city-state of Pretoria threatens to use a 3-megaton neutron bomb as its last line of defense.
133* In ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', Colonel O'Neil secretly brings a nuke through the Stargate with the team on its very first exploration mission. His orders? Nuke the place if there's any sign of hostiles. [[spoiler:They end up using the nuke to kill Ra.]]
134* ''Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie'':
135** In ''Film/BaalLordOfStorms'', the military considers nuking ''a storm front''. While it's clearly the wrong option, there's a techno-babble reason given (something to do with disrupting electro-magnetic waves) to make it merely a bad idea and not simply a completely cracked-out-of-their-mind idea. Ironically, [[spoiler:it actually ''helps'' by weakening Baal enough for [[SummonBiggerFish El, the God the heroes have summoned]] to defeat him]].
136** In ''Film/MegaSharkVsGiantOctopus'', the [[ArmiesAreEvil Evil Army]] suggests nuking the eponymous sea monsters, to the horror of the scientists. Think of the damaged ecosystem! The risk to the population! The tsunamis! (Much of which could have been avoided by not luring these monsters into shallow water near populated areas like the scientists propose.) No mention is made of using weapons ''designed to destroy underwater targets'' like depth charges or anti-submarine missiles.
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139[[folder:Literature]]
140* Subverted in the book and the 1971 film version of ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain.'' The titular extraterrestrial organism (a single-celled, quasi-crystalline life form) mutates as it's exposed to ionizing radiation - at a rather sedate rate under atmospheric UV exposure, extremely rapidly with more powerful sources. Of course, the secure biohazard laboratory where this bug is being studied is equipped with a thermonuclear device for "terminal sterilization" in case of contamination, and the lab becomes contaminated when the organism mutates to a form that degrades organic polymers, thus compromising the synthetic rubber gaskets and hatch seals throughout the lab. FailsafeFailure ensues. The greatest {{Irony}} in all that was that with mutation into the "rubber-eating" form the organism ''stopped'' being dangerous to humans (which was just an unfortunate coincidence anyway), but subjecting it to the radiation of a nuclear blast [[NiceJobBreakingItHero might mutate it into something even more horrific]].
141* Attempted in ''[[Literature/Touch2017 Touch]]'', as a way of dealing with an otherworldly horror from before the dawn of man. [[spoiler: It only mostly fails.]]
142* Believe it or not, there's actually a ''spell'' to do this in ''Literature/TheInheritanceCycle''. Of course it's never actually called that, because this is a Medieval Fantasy setting where most people are shocked to find out the earth is round, but the effects it has are all exactly the same, right down to the radioactive fallout, or "invisible poison" as it gets called, (though there are spells to get rid of that too). [[GodzillaThreshold It's not used much because of the collateral damage]], and the fact that the ''[[TakingYouWithMe user]]'' [[TakingYouWithMe is the one whose atoms get split to make the boom]]. The two times it was used, both users had already gone insane: once before the series started, when a Rider named Thuviel saw his dragon killed in [[BigBad Galb]][[HeroKiller atorix]]'s purge, rendering the island of Vroengard uninhabitable in the process; the second was [[spoiler:Galbatorix himself, after a CareBearStare [[DrivenToSuicide drives him to kill himself]] in TheFinalBattle.]] And what are the words to this spell? [[spoiler:"Waíse Néiat." Be Not.]]
143* This trope is the final solution to the ensuing HellOnEarth in Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming''. [[spoiler:It almost doesn't work.]]
144* In ''Day by Day Armageddon'', the US Government decides to nuke most of the major US cities due to the spread of zombies getting out of hand. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this doesn't fix things, because the zombies who weren't caught in the nuke blasts absorbed the radiation and it ''somehow'' turned them from slow zombies into fast zombies.]] Obviously, these people have not read Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide, which specifically argues against this (for pretty much this very same reason).
145* Mentioned in passing in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Donald Morgan mentions having killed a {{Skinwalker}}, a quasi-divine being with a portfolio of pain, torture and despair, he fought into the American Southwest in TheFifties by luring it to the site of an atomic bomb test and teleporting out a split second before detonation.
146* ''Literature/Timeline191'' has UsefulNotes/WorldWarII turn into a nuclear (though they're called [[CallARabbitASmeerp Superbombs]] in this timeline) conflict as more and more nations gain them. First the Germans nuke Petrograd to force Russia to surrender. They don't, so they turn around at try the same on Paris. That succeeds and France pulls out of the war. Britain proceeds to nuke Hamburg, so Germany nukes Britain ''three'' times (Norwick, London, and Brighton) in response. The CSA smuggles a shoddily-made bomb into Philadelphia, which still manages to cause a great deal of damage. In response, the USA nukes Newport News in attempt to assassinate Confederate president Jake Featherstone, which fails, and then later does the same to Charleston to strike a symbolic victory against their opponent. Ironically, the the Empire of Japan manages to avoid being nuked altogether.
147* In the Australian satire ''Year of the Angry Rabbit'', a landowner gets the army to use atomic mortars on his property because it's become infested with rabbits. This leads to giant radioactive rabbits rampaging across Australia.
148* In ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'', the Race comes to Earth armed to the teeth, including a shipful of nukes. They open their invasion by detonating nukes in the upper atmosphere, hoping to knock out human electronics. Except this is UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and vacuum tubes are far more resistant to EMP than later technology. A lucky shot from the Dora cannon blows up the ship with the nukes, contaminating the entire area with radioactive material. Frustrated at humans resisting, the Race nukes Berlin and Washington and are very annoyed that this only increases the ferocity with which humanity fights back. Eventually, US, Nazi Germany, and USSR get nukes of their own and start using them against the Race. The only reason the Race is initially hesitant to use them is because they contaminate large swaths of land, and already severely limited commodity on Earth, as far as they're concerned (they're used to arid planets). But then they say "screw it" and start trying to out-nuke the humans in the hope that they give give up. Humans reply in kind and start nuking their own cities, occupied by the Race. By the end of the original tetralogy, the Race finally agrees to peace talks, dividing Earth into Race-controlled territory and the six remaining powers (US, Greater German Reich, USSR, UK, Japan, and Canada).
149** Come the ''Colonization'' trilogy, set twenty years later, someone ends up nuking a Race civilian transport, holding thousands of colonists. [[spoiler:It's eventually discovered that the culprit was the US; when the Race finds out, they demand that the President allow them to destroy an American city in retaliation in order to avoid a full-scale war. He does, just before blowing his brains out.]] Then the Germans go to war again, despite repeated warning by the Race. Both Germany and Race-controlled Poland end up nuked to hell.
150* ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'': [[spoiler: Splitting atoms is actually a pretty trivial spell, as Emily discovers in book four. Emily is ''very'' grateful that magical law allows her to protect her secrets after she has to nuke another necromancer.]]
151* ''Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy'': High Epics are those with at least one "Prime Invincibility," such as [[BarrierWarrior forcefields]] or a powerful HealingFactor, that renders them immune to conventional weapons. It's mentioned that it's extremely rare for even the most powerful Epics to be able to survive a nuke (or [[PersonOfMassDestruction Obliteration]] going nuclear, which is more common in the post-apocalypse). Several European countries tried to handle High Epics by nuking the cities they were in, and if you put aside the horrific loss of innocent life it was working reasonably well... [[PyrrhicVictory but they soon ran out of cities]].
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155* Despite actor Bruce Boxleitner's self-penned nickname to his series character on ''Series/BabylonFive'', John Sheridan, who uses nuclear weapons no less than four times against seemingly unbeatable opponents and winning all four times, is an '''aversion''' to this trope, as he used nuclear weapons in [[NuclearOption important strategic methods under his authority]]. Boxleitner's use of the nickname in the commentary track for 'Thirdspace' makes the nickname all but official.
156** "Thirdspace" was probably the closest Sheridan ever got to this trope, as this particular use of a nuclear weapon had no tactical subtlety whatsoever (Sheridan carried the bomb himself and planted it on the thing to be destroyed, an idea even ''he'' realized was nuts), but it was still a reasonable option under [[GodzillaThreshold the circumstances]].
157* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': The new series gleefully hurls nukes around with wild abandon. [[spoiler:In the mini-series alone the Twelve Colonies are hit by thousands of nukes: Helo reports seeing six mushroom clouds just from the one area his Raptor has landed in on Caprica in the space of about an hour. ''Galactica'' itself withstands a direct hit from a nuclear missile, although it sustains heavy damage and more than 80 casualties. ''Pegasus'' was also nuked a couple of times while in dock during this time. Nukes are also later used to destroy a Cylon basestar and Gaius Baltar appropriates one, allegedly for his research but this is later used to blow up at least three of the refugee ships and kill more than 3,000 civilians. The high-point for the use of nukes is when ''Pegasus'' withstands no less than three nuclear hits at pointblank range and shrugs them off to inflict grievous damage on the attacking Cylon basestars with its guns. Nukes are later used to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Hub and in the stand-off between ''Galactica'' and the rebel basestar. In a moment of possible high irony, the ''Galactica'' finally reaches Earth (the first one) to find the planet irradiated by a nuclear war, which has left the planet uninhabitable. Finally, the Colonial Fleet uses all of its remaining nukes to destroy the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Cylon Colony Ship]] (and most all of the Cylons) in the GrandFinale.]]
158* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Does this ''twice'', once in the first season in order to destroy Scorpius' Gammack Base (Though it isn't ''technically'' a nuke per se, the yield is similar), and again in the last season, where [[TheHero John]] creates a makeshift nuke to use as leverage in his {{plan}}.
159* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In the pilot, the army plans to use a nuclear warhead to stop a chemical leak. In the end, Mac fixes it with chocolate.
160* ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'': A little {{downplayed|Trope}} in [[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E3SecretsAndLies Episode 3]]. General Puckett takes to the idea of nuking Godzilla first and asking questions later once Lee, Keiko and Bill convince him that safeguarding the U.S.'s territories against an incursion by the Titan is worth redirecting their uranium supply into dealing with him (with the trio being unaware that Puckett would interpret their advice as [[ScientistVsSoldier "nuke Godzilla" instead of "lure Godzilla out for study"]]). Puckett not only all but goes behind the scientists' backs when arranging the nuclear strike against Godzilla, he also turns down the trio's subsequent pleas that they should wait to learn more about Godzilla before they resort to trying to kill him, justifying his hasty course of action by saying, "You wait to see what the enemy's gonna do, you've already lost". When Godzilla vanishes in the atomic blast and is presumed dead, Puckett turns to his jubilant men and he calls what they've done "magnificent" while sporting an unsettling grin, making him come a lot closer to [[PlayedStraight playing this trope straight]].
161* Played for laughs in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', when London gangster Dinsdale Piranha thinks (correctly, as it turns out) that he's being stalked by a gigantic hedgehog named Spiny Norman. Dinsdale somehow comes to the conclusion that Norman sleeps in a hangar at Luton Airport, and blows it up with a nuclear bomb that he had previously used to [[ItMakesSenseInContext extort nightclub owners]]. We later see Norman in the episode's climax, suggesting that either Dinsdale was wrong about where he slept, or he's immune to nuclear weaponry.
162* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': This show likes to nuke them.
163** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E18TheLightBrigade The Light Brigade]]", the titular human warship is hit by two nukes.
164** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E9TrialByFire Trial by Fire]]", the US president tries to nuke the aliens who have splashed down in Earth's oceans.
165* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'':
166** [[spoiler:After allying with Randall and gaining a permanent source of power, Monroe manages to build a nuclear bomb and attempts to use it to destroy Atlanta and cripple the Georgia Federation. Fortunately, the protagonists stop this just in time]] ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame The Song Remains the Same]]", "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E14TheNightTheLightsWentOutInGeorgia The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia]]").
167** In the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]], [[spoiler:Randall Flynn takes advantage of the power being turned back to fulfill his plan: to launch Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at Philadelphia and Atlanta. He then shoots himself in the head after doing this. Then it turns out that he was working on behalf of the American government, which was hiding out in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for years. Now that Randall has completed his mission, the government is coming back into the USA to retake what's theirs]].
168* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Parodied this in the (are you ready?) "[[RefugeInAudacity Attack of the Masturbating Zombies]]" sketch: a professor suggests dropping an atomic bomb on the town square, only to be told, "Professor, that's your solution for everything."
169* Several ''Series/SevenDays'' episodes involve nukes. One has an American nuclear silo launch a nuke at North Korea, resulting in a massive exchange between the two countries, wiping out North Korea and devastating the West Coast. In another episode, Fidel Castro launches old Soviet nukes at the US in retaliation for the death of his adopted son. Due to the limited range, they can only hit Miami. Most of the nukes are intercepted, but one hits the city. Naturally, given the [[TimeTravel nature of the show]], these are all averted.
170* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
171** This show will sometimes resort to this, with early seasons favoring the FiveRoundsRapid treatment of nukes (namely epic failure) to give the title object and title team justification for existence. There is one early case where a nuke is actually used to prevent them all from being sucked into a black hole.
172** Later seasons started using them more frequently, such as the Mark IX "Gatebuster", a [[{{Unobtainium}} naquadriah]]-enhanced warhead with a supposed yield of several gigatons[[note]]For reference, the most powerful nuke ever actually detonated in reality was "merely" 50 megatons, which is roughly 100 times weaker than the Gatebuster[[/note]]. Of course, given that they were fighting [[EnergyBeings the Ori]] in their last season, it's logical that they would bring their most powerful weapons to bear.
173** The SpinOff ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', on the other hand, practically giggles any time nukes are mentioned to the point where [[TheHero John Sheppard]] makes putting a nuke on the enemy ship his ''default'' anti-capital ship tactic, though he's more often than not justified in this (Wraith Hive Ships are quite large and for most of the series the only other weapons capable of reliably destroying them are the perpetually-in-short-supply Ancient drone weapons), and pretty much every application works as intended. Nukes are used [[spoiler:on the first two Hive Ships sent to Atlantis, one flown into the Dart Bay, the other beamed on. Nukes are beamed onto two more Hive Ships. The Wraith are quick learners though, and find a way to jam Asgard beaming devices after this. The Genii use one to kill one of their own armies and their boss in a coup. Finally, Sheppard single-handedly flies an F-302 into the Dart Bay of a [[FinalBoss Super Hive Ship]] undetected and armed with a nuke.]]
174*** Then there's the giant Horizon planetary attack missile launched against the Asuran homeworld, which carried '''six''' Mark IX warheads.
175* ''Series/ThumbWrestlingFederation'': The Big Time can cause nuclear explosions simply by winding up and slamming his opponent to the mat. [[SuperStrength Yes, he's that strong]].
176* ''Series/YearsAndYears'': In the last days of his presidency, [[spoiler: Donald Trump has the Chinese island of Hong Sha Dao nuked off the face of the earth]]. Later on, [[spoiler: Leeds and Bristol]] are hit with dirty bombs as well.
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180* Music/RandyNewman's "Political Science" deconstructs and mocks this trope by suggesting the flimsiest, most frivolous excuses for nuking everyone and everything (except Australia).
181* The topic of the TitleTrack from ''Massive Killing Capacity'' by Music/{{Dismember}}.
182* The [[Music/InsaneClownPosse ICP]] track "Bang, Pow, Boom!" is about a sentient version of this. A nuclear level, thinking explosion, that cleans out the scumbags and evildoers from the Dark Carnival when it gets crowded.
183* The music video for Miike Snow's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_SlAzsXa7E My Trigger]]'' is set during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. As in real life, both the USA and the USSR have nukes at their disposal, and both are severely tempted and pressured by their respective staff to press the BigRedButton. In the end neither one goes for it.
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186[[folder:Pinballs]]
187* Fully embraced by Creator/SegaPinball's ''Pinball/StarshipTroopers''. Not only are you awarded points for nuking planets, the game even has lanes labeled "Nuke", "Double Nuke", and "Super Nuke".
188[[/folder]]
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190[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
191* Used intermittently in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''.
192** Actual nuclear weapons are not prominent, being relegated to use by garrison forces for the most part. When a cosmic horror rears its head the three most favoured options are [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill saturation]] [[DeathFromAbove orbital bombardment]], [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]] or deploying the Grey Knights.
193** Weapons on the same or greater scale as nuclear weapons include: plasma torpedoes (200 meter inter-ship ordinance), engineered viruses (including the Worldkiller Virus,) [[SphereOfDestruction Vortex weapons]], and Cyclonic torpedoes (which burrow into a planet's crust and detonate in the mantle, causing widespread surface devastation.)
194** When it looks like a Space Marine force isn't going to be able to protect or take back a planet, it is their responsibility to blow the planet up before they leave. After all, if the [[BadassArmy Space Marines]] go up against something and can't win, it's very likely nothing can.
195** Let's talk a bit about the [[SarcasmMode lovely]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Death Korps of Krieg]], who subjected their own seditious homeworld to 500 years of "atomic cleansing".
196* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', Ares Macrotechnology used a tactical nuke in an attempt to saturate Chicago's astral plane with toxicity and kill the hordes of bug spirits that ravaged the city. Fortunately the bug spirits' own energy-shield trapped the physical and metaphysical blast ''inside'' the bugs' nest, preventing its full impact from reducing Chicago to a radioactive ruin. You gotta give props to FASA: it takes nerve to nuke your game company's own hometown. Their own headquarters, as a matter of fact.
197* Averted in GDW's cold war tactical games like ''VideoGame/{{Harpoon}}'' and ''VideoGame/AirStrike'' which focused on conventional weapons. For a nuclear variant the game designers recommended dousing the game in lighter fluid and setting it on fire.
198* ''VideoGame/{{Mekton}}'' has rules for nuclear weapons, with the degree to which you are screwed being directly proportional to how close you are to the centre of the blast. If you're within the basic blast radius, you automatically die unless you have a ''really good'' excuse. Outside of that, you're simply ''very likely'' to die. It also gives some key rules about using them so as not to destroy the ''game'', just the ''battlefield'', such as "Only drop them to establish a scenario, rather than as a cheap Draw button" and "if you ''must'' drop it during the fight, do so in the centre of the battlefield." (Just to reinforce this, the "nuclear" upgrade for missiles and bullets is very expensive.) Supernovas use the same rules, although the rules state that you just treat the hex you're in as ground zero and quit whining -- the ''entire system'' is screwed, why should you be immune unless you're flying an Excessive Scale HumongousMecha that could [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu stomp Cthulhu underfoot]]?
199* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' many nations resorted to nukes, orbital kinetic strikes, and antimatter bombs to try and halt the [=TITANs=] during the Fall. The end result was the death of 90% of humanity and a mass exodus from earth. Not an uncommon modus operandi for [[WellIntentionedExtremist Firewall]] either.
200* ''TabletopGame/{{Toon}}'' supplement ''Tooniversal Tour Guide''. In ''Atomic Monster Theater'', Colonel Rock Daring's policy towards giant monsters is literally "Nuke 'em!''
201* ''TabletopGame/CarWars'' said "Using a nuke ends the game". The standard play maps used were 2x3 feet or so, and the smallest available nuke would destroy five maps in all directions, damage which no car would survive.
202* Nukes, along with biological and chemical weapons, are supposed to be banned by the [[FictionalGenevaConventions Ares Conventions]] of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. The presence of even a single nuclear weapon was cause for mass panic and alarm during the times of the Succession Wars. Then came the [[ChurchMilitant Word of Blake]], who decided that if they couldn't have the Inner Sphere, no one could; the Word proceeded to deploy and use more nuclear weapons in fifteen years than the universe had in three hundred, to the point of developing the most [[LethalJokeCharacter lethal of joke characters]], an ''Urbanmech'' carrying [[http://imgur.com/KNJjYRx a tactical nuclear missile launcher]].
203* Much like the ''Battletech'' example above, this is decidedly not an option allowed by The Third Imperium in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' to its constituent or client planets. Anyone using nukes on anyone else within reach of the Imperium, for whatever reason, can expect a ''very'' unfriendly and supremely unpleasant visit from the Imperial military, potentially including [[PayEvilUntoEvil getting a taste of their own nuclear medicine.]]
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206[[folder:Video Games]]
207* ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'' reveals that [[MadScientist Kokonoe]] keeps a fully loaded silo in range of her lab just in case she needs a quick solution to [[ArchEnemy Yuuki Terumi]] or whatever he may be cooking up this week. [[HeroAntagonist Hakumen]] (who saw a nuke strike against the Black Beast do jack-shit to it) is understandably horrified when he finds out.
208* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'':
209** One of Axton's skills lets him set off a mini-nuke when deploying his SABRE turret (with its own cooldown).
210** The Nukem rocket launcher is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Don't fire at anything ''too'' close to yourself.
211* The Carronade or Hex Cannon in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' is depicted as a particularly (and ''literally'') nightmare-inducing magical thermonuclear weapon equivalent. The really scary thing is in the power source and in the ammo; the power source is a princess who is converted into an artificial Endless so that she can be perpetually tortured, whilst the ammo consists of people with a close connection to the target being literally tortured to the point of a mental breakdown and then subjected to human sacrifice. It's the pain, rage, and suffering that ends up being the "warhead".
212** Depicted originally as a plot-point in a town that was Hex Nuked, including literal Hex Decontamination Teams. [[spoiler:Even with this, it is stated will take many years for the hexed city to recover -- which has had to be evacuated of residents.]]
213** Depicted most tragically in Fou-lu's storyline.[[note]]Peasant girl meets dragon-god. Peasant girl falls in love with dragon-god. Peasant girl is taken prisoner by empire dragon-god founded 600 years ago, tortured horribly, and ultimately used as Tactical Thermonuclear Peasant in attempt to kill dragon-god. Dragon-god survives (barely) and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge goes completely bugfuck nuts]] when he realizes ''who'' was used as the ammo.[[/note]] Suffice it to say that it does ''not'' end well for TheEmpire.
214* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'':
215** Every game in the main series features the late-game development of nuclear weapons (or "Planet Busters" in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''[[note]]Though we should note they're more of a mid-game development in ''SMAC'' thanks to the future setting[[/note]]), which are by far the most devastating offensive units available, even despite attempted countermeasures like Bomb Shelter structures or the Strategic Defense Initiative national wonder. Problem is, using nukes causes ''severe'' diplomatic repercussions, and depending on the game can kick up a ton of pollution and/or advance {{global warming}} by a significant degree. Once the United Nations is founded, it's possible for civs to come together and ban the construction of nukes, though this notably does nothing to any pre-built atomic stockpiles.
216** UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi has a reputation as a [[MemeticPsychopath nuke-loving psycho]], stemming from the incongruity of a famous pacifist boasting "Our words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!" in ''Civ I'' (but [[UrbanLegendOfZelda not]], as it turns out, due to an overflow glitch causing his aggression rating to "fall" from 1 to 255 with the adoption of democracy). Both players and developers have grown fond of the "Nuclear Gandhi" characterization, and thus later games have given him a tendency to build up a nuclear stockpile and bomb the hell out of anyone foolish enough to declare war on him.
217* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
218** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'': Kane sure likes his nukes.
219*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars'', Kane's discovery of Killian Qatar's [[spoiler:apparent]] betrayal and alliance with GDI results in a [[VillainousBreakdown slightly angry response]]. His subsequent orders are to, well...
220*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'', Kane decides to nuke a small town just to eliminate the protagonist and his squad. Justified in that he just killed his way through a mansion filled with Nod's elite.
221*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', Kane, dissatisfied with General Vega (an [[DrugsAreBad Eye Candy addict]]), decides to reprimand him. With a tactical nuke. Sadly, he misses [[ColonelBadass Commander McNeil]] by a few minutes.
222*** In ancient history, in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'', you get nuked by Kane during the final mission.
223** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlertSeries'':
224*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', Stalin launches nukes against capital cities of the Allies to ensure victory. Of course, the good guys disarm them in flight -- which they only knew how to do because one of Stalin's top commanders had defected out of ethical concerns over the nuclear weapons programme and how it was going to be used (in addition to Stalin's intent to nuke Allied cities, he was also planning to use Soviet armies as sacrificial bait to put Allied armies in a position to be nuked)[[note]]in that timeline, the Soviets were the ''first'' to develop nukes[[/note]].
225*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', Chicago is destroyed by a nuclear bomb after the player destroys the psychic amplifier and the USSR has no further use for the city. A technical FissionMailed, too.
226*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2: Yuri's Revenge'', the mission Power Play basically revolves around you trying to stop Yuri from nuking the city every ten minutes. It doesn't help that Yuri tends to use his first nuke to destroy your War Factory and you don't have a Construction Yard in this mission.
227*** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', Soviet General Krukov and Premier Cherdenko go back in time and kill Einstein to prevent him from granting the Allies technological superiority. On their return, they find that Japan has become the Empire of the Rising Sun and is invading Leningrad. Krukov orders the entire Soviet nuclear arsenal to be used in defense of Leningrad. Nuclear what now? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oops]].
228** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', the Chinese have nukes, and you can build as many silos as you want. Each with a separate nuclear missile. You don't need line of sight to fire them, either. DeathFromAbove indeed. General Tsing Shi Tao is noted to be ''obsessed'' with nuclear weapons, and is eager to use them in every combat situation [[WeHaveReserves without regard to the safety of his own men]].
229* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'':
230** In the first game, [[spoiler:after pulling off the island, the Navy decides to nuke the aliens, deflecting Dr. Rosenthal warnings that they absorb energy with comments along the lines of "There's no time to study them." To nobody's surprise, the aliens absorb the blast and get stronger. Just as predictably, [[AllUpToYou it's all your problem from there]]. Then played straight by having the player use a ''nuclear grenade launcher'' on the alien spaceship]].
231** In the sequel, [[spoiler:the military decides to do this to the Ceph Lithoship floating above Central Park. Even though it didn't work last time, to the same aliens that are attacking this time. And even though the blast would destroy much of the New York City area, rendering it uninhabitable for years even if it ''did'' work. Fortunately, Col. Barclay stalls them long enough for you to shut the ship down yourself]].
232* In ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'', your job is to pretty much nuke the entire world (with the exception of your own continent). While several other weapons beside nukes exist, they are mostly used to shoot down nuclear missiles. Or shoot down airplanes carrying nuclear missiles. Or sink submarines that can sneak up on you and fire nuclear missiles. All is shown in the style of the final scene from ''Film/WarGames''.
233* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', [[spoiler:[[TropeNamers Duke Nukem]] himself was once nuked by the U.S. government along with the Cycloid Emperor. Of course, being the Duke, he survived, as revealed in the DLC chapter "The Doctor Who Cloned Me"]].
234* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
235** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'':
236*** One of the first sidequests has the option to detonate the nuke in the center of Megaton, which can be done as soon as you leave the Vault. This is one of two acts in the main game that [[MoralEventHorizon automatically]] drop your KarmaMeter all the way down to Very Evil (the other is [[spoiler:infecting Project Purity with the modified FEV in the end quest]]).
237*** The game also provides miniature nukes for the player to use in very, very small supply, launched by either the Fat Man or the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ridiculously overpowered]] nuclear shotgun that is the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Experimental MIRV]].
238*** Since the game is set in and around Washington, D.C., a player may wonder what happened to the White House. If you go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you find... a massive, hideously-irradiated crater. Three guesses what happened ''there.''
239** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas: Lonesome Road'': Ulysses plans to use the remaining nukes in the Divide to wipe out both the NCR and the Legion, in revenge for the Courier inadvertently turning the Divide into a [[DeathWorld Death City]].
240** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'':
241*** In the Far Harbor DLC, one of the ways you can deal with the radiation-worshipping [[{{Cult}} Children of Atom]] is to convince their leader to initiate "Division", a.k.a. mass ritual suicide via a nuke in their base.
242*** In the base game, [[spoiler:you [[ButThouMust have to]] destroy the Institute if you didn't side with them. This barring the fact that the Brotherhood of Steel confiscates and studies technology, and the Railroad and Minutemen will gain everything from utilizing the advanced technologies for rescuing synths (in the case of the Railroad) and making Commonwealth life better in general (for both factions)]].
243** ''VideoGame/Fallout76'' has a handful of nuclear launch sites scattered around the Appalachian region. Resourceful and determined players can seek them out, along with the launch codes necessary to use the nukes, to bomb any part of the region into Kingdom Come.
244* ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' [[spoiler:canonically ends with Hope County being nuked. It is later revealed in ''VideoGame/FarCry6'' and its ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' DLC pack that these nukes had been purchased by Pagan Min and that, as a result, whomever fired them was the person who had gained control of Kyrat]].
245* The early 1990s PC game ''Global Effect'' lets you nuke enemy cities at will, which makes the whole screen fade into white for a few moments. It's a guaranteed way to punch an ozone hole in the sky.
246* The Black Mesa Research Facility is destroyed by a nuclear warhead in ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce''. Shephard discovers and disarms the warhead during the chapter "The Package", only for the G-Man to rearm it a few minutes later. It detonates while he addresses Shephard on board an outbound helicopter at the game's conclusion, and at this he considers the Black Mesa incident finally taken care of.
247* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Nukes are one of the most potent weapons humanity has against the far more advanced Covenant Empire, functioning as a BoringButPractical alternative to the Covenant's more exotic plasma-based plasma torpedoes and plasma bombs. Most UNSC warships carry a few of them, and they're used both for killing Covenant warships with proximity detonations and taking out bases, space stations, or armies via insertion by aircraft or [[SuperSoldier Spartans]].
248** While effective, nukes have a few big drawbacks. One, they're not cheap; ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' specifies that they're a rare and precious resource, and it's a major plot point in ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' that the titular planet (humanity's military capital) just flat-out ran out of nukes a few days into the Covenant attack. Two, due to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law inverse square law]] they tend to really suffer against hardened targets at a range, which is a big factor in space combat scenarios.[[note]]For context, a 30 megaton nuke detonated at 100 meters would be the equivalent of a 3 kiloton nuke detonated at 1 meter.[[/note]] Three, tying into the latter, the need for a missile bearing a nuke to get really close to effectively hurt a Covenant ship gives said ship plenty of chances to either get out of the way or shoot the missile down with its point-defense lasers. Four, the battles of the Human-Covenant War are more often than not being fought on human worlds, and the UNSC would very much prefer ''not'' to nuke their own economic base if they can help it (they often can't, though).
249** Of note is the UNSC's use of "vacuum-enhanced" loads which, via unknown means, somehow give their space nukes the ability to detonate with nearly the same effectiveness as they would in the atmosphere ([[https://history.nasa.gov/conghand/nuclear.htm see here for why that's notable]]). The drawback seems to be that the filler necessary to make a nuke like this takes up an absurd amount of mass and thus detracts from the volume that could have been used for fissile material -- the [[https://www.halopedia.org/M441_Hornet_Remote_Explosive_System Hornet mines]] for example are easily [[https://i.imgur.com/8Wuy2pi.png bigger]] than the [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/75802166@N07/8372421999 Tsar Bomba]] despite having about half the given yield. The [[https://www.halopedia.org/M4093_Hyperion_nuclear_delivery_system Hyperion]]'s warhead is nearing B41 size yet, going by the fact that Master Chief wasn't vaporized through the window after being within a few hundred meters of one's detonation at the beginning of ''VideoGame/Halo4'', its yield is far lower.
250* ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'':
251** Your tank's {{Smart Bomb}}s, which are easy to obtain, destroy all regular enemies on the screen, and hurt bosses for a lot of damage (without destroying most of the landscape) when used. These can be used in dire situations and against particularly tough bosses to soften them up.
252** The enemy Red Star forces have the [[DemonicSpiders Havanski Atomic Bomber]] presumably sent after you once they find out that you're a credible threat. These guys drop A-bombs which instantly destroy you (and [[TotalPartyKill your party]] in Survival mode) [[OneHitKill regardless of shielding]] if one of them even ''touches'' [[AlwaysAccurateAttack anywhere]] on the ground!
253* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'', this happens to [[spoiler:San Francisco]] in 1987. [[spoiler:There's also a full-scale nuclear war annihilating ''at least'' Miami and Hawaii in the ending.]]
254* ''VideoGame/Jak3'', the final weapon upgrade Jak gets is the Supernova, a total SmartBomb that kills every enemy and vehicle around Jak and Daxter's immediate vicinity in a glorious mushroom cloud. [[AwesomeButImpractical However]], it can only be fired a maximum of twice with all ammo extensions, and it has a bad habit of also nuking friendly vehicles and allies.
255* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Nukes have generally fallen out of favor, due to the same issues that render them somewhat impractical in ''Halo'' (inverse square law, vacuum blast effects, enemy point-defense) being both present and magnified by the fact that every warship is both super maneuverable and equipped with GARDIAN laser systems that can shoot down ''hundreds'' of missiles before failing. The fact that they have far superior {{antimatter}} warheads, which are so common that even small private corporations can deploy them in backwaters like Noveria, adds to the general uselessness of nukes. Despite that, nukes being cheap in a universe where deuterium -- helium-3 fusion is considered quaint civilian-grade tech does give them some niche uses:
256** The Systems Alliance attaches small nuclear bombs ("small" in this context being [[HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure two Hiroshimas]]) to their recon probes in case they end up captured by the enemy. A pirate in [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]] captures one and tries to use it to assassinate Shepard, though he conveniently [[BondVillainStupidity gives you enough time to disarm it]].
257** Captain Kirrahe improvises a nuclear bomb from his small ship's fusion reactor to take out Saren's base. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale He gives the probable yield as 25 kilotons]], but the resulting fireball is more like 25 ''giga''tons.
258** Jack's loyalty mission has you placing a bomb in an abandoned Cerberus base to metaphorically purge her DarkAndTroubledPast. When the apparently man-portable bomb is set off, it turns out to be a multi-megaton detonation that causes a fireball that takes eight seconds to dissipate, as well as a shockwave powerful enough to rock large aircraft tens of kilometers distant (the shuttle had been accelerating away for well over twenty seconds by the time the bomb went off). Apparently, a single cell of a single fringe terrorist group thinks nothing of disposing of such a weapon just to make one of their mercenaries feel better, suggesting that they're dime a dozen in the setting.
259** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the minor Terminus planet of Illium is stated to have stockpiled a ''huge'' number of nukes in preparation for the Reaper invasion. While said nukes are explicitly stated to be useless against Reaper warships,[[note]]Likely because of a combination of their point-defense and the inverse square law rendering nukes ineffective past at most a few kilometers against such hardened targets -- Reaper ships are routinely seen pulling dozens of gees within Earth-like atmospheres since the first game, so they'd need less than a minute of warning to get completely clear of the danger zone of even large nukes.[[/note]] their [[NightOfTheLivingMooks husks]], transports, and bases are a different story.
260** Also in ''[=ME3=]'', the turians end up mass distributing man-portable nukes to suicide bombers and deploying them in an attempt to slow the advance of Reaper ground forces. One particularly successful operation happens when said suicide bombers manage to get ''inside'' Reaper capital ships for processing, and then set off their payloads.
261** The turians seem to use larger nukes in ground warfare as well -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv1OJ-vrgvo&t=0m48s you can witness several fireballs suddenly forming on the fortress moon of Palaven]] which are easily visible from space and seemingly dozens of kilometers in diameter, meaning they're either big nukes or {{antimatter}} bombs.[[note]]For context, a ~24 kilometer diameter fireball comes out to about [[https://nuclearweaponsedproj.mit.edu/fireball-size-effects 2.5 gigatons]].[[/note]]
262* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
263** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'': The [[TheCorruption Leviathan Seed]] on Skytown is protected by an [[DeflectorShields energy shield]], and unlike the last level the generators are out of reach. So what solution does the local supercomputer come up with? Assemble some parts they happen to have lying around the place, and ''drop a nuke on it''. It's called a 'Theronian Bomb', but is also referred to as a nuclear weapon, so presumably [[CallARabbitASmeerp it's pretty much the same thing with slightly different ingredients]].
264** The Omega Cannon in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'' is practically a portable nuclear bomb. It's the only weapon that can kill the final boss and in multiplayer, it kills anyone, including the shooter, instantly if they are caught in the blast.
265* In ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'', the A-Bomb nukes your characters and completely vaporizes anything that isn't as [[GameBreaker overpowered]].
266* In ''VideoGame/{{Octogeddon}}'', the defensive parties against Octogeddon are rather trigger-happy with their nuclear weapons, several sending a dozen of them at once in the so-called "Nuclear Waves". However, they do not do any more damage to Octogeddon than any other thing in the game, and even when exploding in cities they do not cause much destruction.
267* ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' and its successors ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}'' and ''ARMA 2'' all feature nukes to some extent -- though in keeping with the ultra-realistic tone of the games, they are only used as a last resort by madmen. And their detonation, should you fail to stop them, is shown to kick off global thermonuclear armageddon. Particularly true in the ''ARMA 2'' bonus mission 'Eagle Wing', which starts off with your AH-64D moving ahead of a naval taskforce to engage Russian forces, but goes all to hell... A panicked "Pull back!" message from command is cut short by a nuclear detonation, and your helicopter is smashed out of the air. You then have to escape and evade in a silent, devastated world (and this is well outside the blast radius, which covers most of the 100km^2 map!) with your character clearly panicking as an enormous mushroom cloud towers over the horizon and black ash falls from the sky. Incredibly well done.
268* In ''VideoGame/PeoplePlayground'', one of the bombs that you can use is the Atom Bomb. It generates a huge fiery explosion with a mushroom cloud, and the explosion will kill everything and turn them into charred skeletons. A later update added the Fusion Bomb, which is ''even stronger'' than the atom bomb, with its explosion radius usually reaching across the entire map.
269* In ''VideoGame/Postal2'', [[spoiler:the Postal Dude Uses a nuclear warhead as a means to quote "Help with marketing." He uses it to also destroy RWS's ex-publishers, Bullfish interactive]].
270* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Operation: Firebreak, which is nuking the area, is the FinalSolution to deal with a virus infecting a city.
271* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
272** Near the end of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', the United States government concludes that Raccoon City cannot be saved. In order to avert wide-scale pandemics of the zombie plague, they fire a nuclear missile. As the news report at the end puts it, "Raccoon City has been literally wiped off the map."
273** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' has Tall Oaks nuked to prevent the spread of the C-Virus, though the protagonists note that [[spoiler:Derek Simmons]] is more interested in destroying the evidence than preventing the spread.
274* ''VideoGame/RoadOfTheDead'': Evans City was nuked in a desperate bid to stop the outbreak from spreading beyond the city. Not only did the dead survive a nuclear bomb, [[AllForNothing but all the personnel and civilians that were still trapped in the city were sacrificed for nothing]].
275** In ''VideoGame/LabOfTheDead'', Allen notes that the day after Evans City was nuked, more nukes were detonated despite the fact Evans City's nuking was a total failure. This is in part due to the Military Headquarters being overrun by the end of Road of the Dead 2. When Allen snapped and injected poison into the soldiers while they're sleeping, one of them is asleep in front of a map showing where the nukes were dropped and where the zombies were overrunning the cities in the United States alone.
276* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
277** The first major arc of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' ends with [[spoiler:the Americans dropping nuclear missiles on Tokyo. You later TimeSkip 30 years into the future, and not surprisingly, the rest of the world has been reduced to nuclear ruin]].
278** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', the Schwarzwelt Joint Project's method of erasing that world is through a shower of nukes. [[spoiler:As evidenced by a vision that happens in the midpoint of the game, it doesn't work. It takes the Cosmic Eggs to amass the firepower to destroy the Schwarzwelt.]]
279** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'', [[spoiler:the Four Archangels continued with the example set in ''I''. Any world they visit and judge unclean, they arrange a nuclear war in and open a gate to the Expanse so the resident demons finish off the remains of Humanity]].
280* The TEC in ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' never leave home without a truckload of nukes for siege purposes. The Marza dreadnought can also be upgraded to re-purpose one for ship-to-ship warfare. Their superweapon, the Novalith Cannon, fires a massive, high-yield nuclear bomb at their hapless enemies' planets. One shot reduces the planets' population by 90%, and makes the rest die of radiation poisoning, two completely sterilizes the planet and makes it unusable for 5 minutes in real-time, which works out to several weeks game-time.
281* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/StarControl II'', it's mentioned that, after a nuclear exchange between Middle East countries that took place during 2015 that claimed several million lives, all nuclear weapons were stored in the so-called "Peace Vaults" so they'd never been used again... until the Chenjesu came asking mankind to join the war and they were re-opened, much to their delight.
282* This is one of the most powerful weapons for the Terran race ''Franchise/StarCraft'', dealing damage in a wide area which can wipe-out an entire army and heavily damage any base, destroying lesser buildings in one blast. The slightly psychologically unstable special ops Ghost units, aside from being the only units who can call in nuke drops, also seem to enjoy doing so a great deal... like, a ''really'' great deal. Way too much, in fact... If it wasn't for their RestrainingBolt, it might've actually been the source of quite a few big problems.
283-->'''Ghost:''' Whenever I see a world untouched by war, a world of innocence, a world of lush forests and clear rivers... I really just wanna ''nuke the crap out of it''!
284* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' gives us Utsuho Reiuji (aka Okuu), who gained the power of manipulating nuclear fusion after eating a sun god (although her attacks don't use the traditional mushroom cloud, since she tosses miniature stars at people). She uses this power to ensure the fires of Hell keep burning. She's not very bright in canon, which fans like to interpret as her cheerfully throwing out vast spheres of starstuff at the slightest provocation.
285* The Hierarchy in ''VideoGame/UniverseAtWar'' love radiological weapons. This may be because radiation heals purebred hierarchs, and they get to use the dead and dying indigenous population as zombies.
286* In ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict,'' this happens twice in the campaign. First a tactical nuke is called in to take out an overwhelming Soviet force headed for a "hold at all costs" level objective. Then, at the end of the campaign, you are racing against time to push the Russians out of Seattle before their Chinese reinforcements arrive and the president is forced to obliterate the city. And you can call in as many as you want in multiplayer.
287* In the ''VideoGame/{{X}}'' series, Hammerhead Missiles are nuclear-tipped [[PlanetTerra Terran]] missiles. A single Hammerhead is more than capable of wiping out an entire fighter wing or destroying a corvette [[OneHitKill with one shot]]. Pirates love to fire these things off [[MacrossMissileMassacre in mass]]. In ''X3: Reunion'', the missiles are simply labeled as "Unknown Object" until the [[LostColony Terrans]] show up.
288* How the Zeboim civilization ends in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. [[spoiler:Miang Hawwa is displeased with how the humans she wants to play a role in [[GrayGoo her greater scheme]] are developing, and successfully agitates for a planet-wide nuclear war for the purposes of eugenics.]]
289[[/folder]]
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291[[folder:Webcomics]]
292* Standard Operating Procedure for [[AxCrazy Black Mage]] of ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''.
293* In ''Webcomic/AmongTheChosen'', nukes are listed as ''conventional weapons'' by a space-faring MegaCorp, which use them almost offhand like any other ordinance. PsychicPowers, on the other hand...
294* The default strategy of ''Webcomic/BioApocalypse'' is to saturate the monster with nukes. [[SerialEscalation When it only hurts the monster but fails to stop it, they launch even more. When that doesn't work they unleash]] a [[spoiler:device [[MoreDakka that fires 50 nukes per second!]] And while it royally fucks up the monster, even THAT doesn't work.]] Beyond just using nukes as a go-to weapon of choice, Nuke Em seems to be the default strategy for everything, but [[CrapsackWorld considering the setting]] [[EldritchAbomination of the story]], [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu it makes sense]] in context.
295* Parodied in the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' arc "That Which Redeems", in which the nuke dropped on the [[DemonicInvaders demon army]] turns out to be an acronym for "'Notification of Unified Kindness' Envelopes". Instead of vaporizing everything for miles around, the "nuke" blankets the area with thousands of polite yet stern letters asking the demons to please stop their invasion. This is still considered an abominable act by most Dimension of Lame residents due to the collateral damange:
296-->'''Alt-Gwynn:''' Terrible thunder. Paper cuts impending. Litter unimaginable.
297[[/folder]]
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299[[folder:Web Originals]]
300* The German technocracy nukes Verona (core Italy) and about a dozen Russian cities in the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII of the ''Literature/ChaosTimeline''.
301* At the end of LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylNqtyj0gs "3 Hunters Grand Finale" video]], [[spoiler:the hunters set up a trap near the End spawn point that they plan to use to kill Dream with the instant he enters the End. Knowing he stands no chance of surviving it normally, Dream opts for the [[SarcasmMode perfectly predictable route]] of just dropping a quarter-stack of TNT through the stronghold portal. What results is basically an interdimensional bomb, leading to the trap's destruction and all three hunters dying]].
302* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', TNT is used ''very'' copiously to cause huge amounts of damage. Most notably, L'Manburg gets subjected to this ''[[RuleOfThree three times]]'':
303** In the War for Indepedence, Dream demands unconditional surrender from L'Manburg or else he'll detonate a block of TNT within L'Manburg's walls. Wilbur, unfazed by merely one block of TNT, declares that he'd rather die defending L'Manburg's right to independence. Unfortunately for Wilbur and L'Manburg, however, doesn't just have that one block within the walls -- he also has an entire nuke's worth of TNT hidden right under L'Manburg itself, and detonating the one block above ground causes nearly every block underground to detonate as well, destroying a majority of L'Manburg from the inside out and dealing its defenders a blow they never recover from.
304** Wilbur decided to do this during the Manburg Festival due to his [[SanitySlippage mental spiral]], wanting to destroy Manburg because he believed the beliefs that his country stood for no longer existed, and also so that Schlatt would lose power. [[spoiler:He eventually ''does'' carry out this plan during the Manburg-Pogtopia War, detonating ''11 and a half stacks'' of TNT with his BigRedButton, and leaving a massive crater where his country once stood. Technoblade quickly helps "clean up" the mess Wilbur left behind... by spawning two [[WeaponOfMassDestruction withers]] during the battle, generating even ''more'' rampant destruction for Tubbo's administration to deal with.]]
305** The Doomsday War. [[spoiler:While L'Manburg is fighting Technoblade, Philza takes them by surprise by launching ''fifteen withers'' into the air, completely decimating most of the nation. And just as they are starting to overcome the withers, it turns out that it was just meant to buy time for the real attack -- Dream's obsidian TNT launchers, which rain enough DeathFromAbove to turn what was once a nation into a gaping hole to ''bedrock''.]]
306* ''Literature/ForAllTime'' has nuke gets getting tossed around by snowballs. They're first used to destroy three cities in Germany and three in Japan to end World War II, then to quell communist uprisings in the Philippines. After the Soviets drop a hydrogen bomb on Zagreb, it just goes downhill from there. Hands down the most impressive developmental example goes to [[spoiler:Korea's Great People's Revolutionary Hammer, a ''250,000 Megaton'' DoomsdayDevice -- which ends up bringing an end to Korea after it's bombed to hell by a coalition of world powers.]] However, the achievement for most destruction goes to [[spoiler:the Soviet Union under Andrei Chikatilo. They wipe out China in a nuclear exchange in 1973, unleash an unprovoked attack on the Middle East in 1975, and finally turns its arsenal ''on itself'' in a nuclear civil war in the 1980s.]]
307* In ''WebAnimation/GamingAllStars'', [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 the Guardian Units of Nations]] resorts to this after [[spoiler:the flood of villains in S3 E7 becomes too out of control for them to shoot down normally, forcing them to drop a hydrogen bomb on the city the monsters were invading]]. Tragically, it not only obliterates the whole city's infrastructure, [[spoiler:but it results in all of the heroes at the scene being mass-trophified, only being revived when [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Marcus Fenix]] arrives shortly after the events of the nuking]].
308* ''Literature/AGiantSuckingSound'': [[spoiler:The Aum Shinrikyo apocalypse cult, best known for its sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway OTL, obtains a nuclear bomb and ''nukes Nagoya, killing 2 million people'']].
309* In WebOriginal/TheInnocent, the children use nuclear bombs against Australia andIndonesia. It is never truly shown or implied that these countries never surrendered before the nukes fell.
310* Part of the dystopian nature of ''Literature/NoW'' is that nukes are used with reckless abandon by both nations and terrorist groups alike. As of this writing, the list of cities nuked includes [[spoiler:Colombo, Moscow, Tbilisi, Cairo, and ''most of Pakistan and northern India'']].
311* In ''[[Literature/PayMeBug A Rake by Starlight]]'', Baron Minerva Tyrelos' enemies aren't above using [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nukes]] in their assassinations.
312* ''Literature/RejectionAndRevenge'': The premise is Osama Bin Laden getting his hands on nuclear materials during the breakup of the Soviet Union. New York, Century City, Las Vegas, and ''[[WhereIWasBornAndRazed Riyadh]]'' are hit on [[spoiler:February 11, 1993. Tel Aviv was also a target, but a terrorist was apprehended by Israeli before anything could happen]]. Iran, due to the terrorist fingering Hezbollah is blamed. [[spoiler:Bill Clinton decides to drops nukes on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard]].
313* ''Roleplay/RockPaperAnything'' has nukes of various kinds used every now and then.
314* In ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'' noted several times where Nukes might have been useful, and WordOfGod said that if the legions of Hell were NOT in a place where quick military action was able to take place they would have Nuked them. It wasn't needed in the first book just because [[MugglesDoItBetter of the effectiveness of modern military hardware]]. [[spoiler:The second book however has three Nukes, and one of them plays this trope straight in a sideways way. One was launched by a Nuclear sub being controlled by an angel, and another was used to wipe out an angel army. The third almost killed Michel, who sensed the cart he was puling was a bit too heavy, and kicked it back through a portal.]]
315* The Website/SCPFoundation has several references to "onsite nukes" being ready on certain sites in case of any notable containment breach, and some stories feature them actually being detonated (such as in the alternate universe featured in SCP-2935, O, Death).
316* ''WebVideo/SMPEarth'': Philza has used nuclear weapons for unjustified reasons in multiple instances, including nuking [[spoiler:the Villager Adoption Agency]] over a faction invite, and [[spoiler:Business Bay]] over losing a single diamond to their casino.
317[[/folder]]
318
319[[folder:Western Animation]]
320* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS4E6TheCheck The Check]]", Gumball's fantasy sequence of what he'd do with $5,000 depicts him running for president of the world and providing citizens with soda, pizza, and robot servants. When [[AIIsACrapshoot the robots rebel against their masters]], Gumball announces that he's skipping to the end and presses a button to nuke the country.
321* ''WesternAnimation/TheIntruderII'' sees this combined with HoistByHisOwnPetard [[spoiler:as WesternAnimation/TheIntruder is killed by TOM using the very ship he used to lure the ''Absolution'' there, overloaded the engines and destroying the ''Absolution'' and the Intruder with it.]]
322* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E3TheDoomsdaySanction The Doomsday Sanction]]", [[GeneralRipper General Wade Eiling]]'s ''first thought'' after he is told to fix the Doomsday situation is to drop a nuclear warhead (with a little kryptonite mixed in) on Doomsday and, by extension, Franchise/{{Superman}} and San Baquero. Since Eiling planned to get to Superman eventually and had long wanted to stop drug smuggling from San Baquero, he considered it killing three birds with one stone. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Amanda Waller is disgusted by this attitude]].
323* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'' is apparently armed with nuclear weapons. In the "Viva Las Megas" episode, Coop proposes using them to blast out of an underground bunker, but is waved off by Jamie and Kiva. He laments "What's the point of havin' nukes if I can't use em?"
324* Coiffio orders Model Robot in ''WesternAnimation/PerfectHairForever'' to "[[ElmuhFuddSyndwome Twansfohm into an A-bomb and bwoh yohself up]]" for no real reason than he hates Model Robot. Model Robot complies, instantly (as opposed to the excessively long transformation sequence he displayed earlier in the show) and takes Coiffio's entire ship with him when he explodes (though Coiffio himself miraculously survives).
325* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', standard Guardian protocol for dealing with a Class 5 web-creature in a system like Mainframe is to destroy the entire system. A Class 5 creature is capable of opening a portal to the Web, and through Mainframe's connections that can lead to an invasion of the entire Net. The Guardians themselves dislike this policy, but [[EldritchLocation the Web]] and [[EldritchAbomination the creatures within it]] are seen as so great a threat that even the loss of an entire system is preferable to a war. They do at least send operatives to the systems in question to positively confirm that there ''is'' such a web-creature present, even they would not blow up a city on an unconfirmed rumor, but once the rumor is confirmed they push the button without a second thought.
326* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', when Finland decides to confess to the space police that they are harboring stolen space money, all other countries in the world agree to get rid of Finland. Immediately, nuclear missiles wipe Finland off the planet in a matter of seconds.
327* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Nelson has a poster in his room which says "''Nuke the Whales''".
328-->'''Lisa:''' You don't really believe that, do you?\
329'''Nelson:''' ''[shrugs]'' Gotta nuke ''something''.
330[[/folder]]

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